2024 SummerVisit5--by Wang Ting Laoshi

Wang Ting Lao Shi (one of our former students) visited 8 poor high school graduates on July 29 and August 2.

Here is a brief summary.

1. The boy lives with his mom. His father died of car accident when he was very young. In order to get her better education, his mom bought this apartment using money paid to his father's death. His mother is already over 50 and works at a local restaurant with little income. He will go to Huaibei Institute of Technology at Mechanical design and manufacturing. They are concerned about the high 16000 ($2200) Yuan CNY tuition. He has been working at a local Hot Pot restaurant.

This girl lives with her mom and her younger brother (who will be in high school this Fall). Her father left them when she was very young and has no contact ever since. Her mother worked 12 hours a day to support them and got kidney failure. To save money, her mom does dialysis at home, still costing them 1000 CNY a month ($150). They depend on government subsidies and her three aunts' support for living. She is very mature, works very hard both at school and at home, and only spend 70 CNY (less than $10) a month at school for food. Her foot got injured by a car while waiting for school bus. She will go to college this Fall, and our support has and will continue to make a big difference to him.

3. She lives with her parents and her grandparents on her mother's side. Her mother has Liver cirrhosis and needs to spend about $150 (1000 CNY) for the disease, and even more when her mom went to hospital. Her father works at a local company to support the family, and her grandpa of 70s does odd jobs too to help the family.She will go to college this Fall and still needs our support.

4. She lives with her parents and lives at a public apartment without need to pay rent, as they are extremely poor. Her mom has chronicle Diabetes and severe cataracts, and she has Congenital cataracts. Her father does odd jobs to support family, e.g., helping others sell watermellon in the summer, and helping others move sometimes. She will go to college this Fall, and still needs our support.

5. She lives with her grandparents and her parents. Her grandpa has high blood pressure, her grandma has high blood pressure and cataracts. Her mom was found to have Cerebellar atrophy and got worse despite the family spent a lot of money to try curing her disease. To avoid further financial burden on the family, her mom attempted suicide in 2017 and was saved by the family, but lost self-support ability. The family had to send her to a local nursing home. With some government support, discount from the nursing home, the family still need to pay 500 CNY ($70) a month. She is very mature and works very hard. She will study Tourism management at Huangshan Insitute (a four year university. Interestingly I studied Math at this college when it was a two year college called HuiZhou Teacher's Academy). She works odd jobs during summer to help reducing the family's financial burden.

6. She lives with her grandma and her parents. She became sick as she was in 2nd grade and her faces are pale. Her parents took her to a lot of big hospitals without good effect. Because of this, her family got a lot of debt. She is very self-displined. She self studied for three years at home in elementary school but still got over 90s in her final exams at school. In high school, she tried to stay in school and study despite her illness unless it was absolutely necessary. She did well in her college extrance exam. Her mom could not help crying when recalling her experience in fight with the disease. Her mom is very proud of her strong will and achievement.

7. This boy lives with his aged grandma. His parents divorced when he was 6 and his mother has not contacted with him or his family ever since, and his father died when he was 16. He was accepted to Huaibei Institute of Technology to study Automation this Fall but with over $3000 tuition a year (23000 CNY), way too much to him and his grandma. He works at local company six days a week for 2000 CNY (less than $300) a month while staying at his aunt's home, cooking and washing clothes himself. The visit is at his aunt's home.

8. Although this high school graduate is already 1.8 meter high, she is quiet. He lives with her grandma and her step-grandpa. His father died when he was 2 and his mother left. After his grandfather died, his grandma remarried to an old man who has never married. Both grandparents are old and cannot work. They depend on a little government support and our support.

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Letter communication is another important part of this program. Please see

www.HometownEducation.org/letters.html

for some of the letters.